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Amazon Reviews

January 05, 2015

Slowly, very slowly, the research and some journalists are killing off the notion of the lone genius. You know, that American mythology of individual superiority applied to creativity. Like John Wayne’s rescue before the barbarians get to you, the lone genius is all nonsense. But the myth of the lone genius will require a cruel death of many cuts. It’s one of our most deeply held and cherished beliefs--even though dead wrong.

The latest cut is delivered by William Deresiewicz in The Atlantic. He writes rather bluntly that the “truth is that the geniuses weren’t really quite as solitary as advertised. They also often came together—think of the Bloomsbury Group—in situations of intense sustained creative ferment.”

Does it really matter?That’s the question. And the answer is a clear-cut affirmative.

December 28, 2014

There are few experiences that can drive learning more than misunderstandings with a business colleague. Misunderstandings happen all the time in organizations and in the best of relationships. Actually, misunderstanding is more prevalent than understanding. The reality is that consistently successful communication is especially abnormal in organizational settings. And although the resulting emotions of embarrassment, threat, fear or anger can hinder us from being proactive and growing, just as often it can propel our learning.

The reasons for misunderstandings are numerous in the organizational setting: levels of hierarchy, larger work teams, cultural, age, sex, gender, religious and value differences, struggles for power ...

December 17, 2014

Sometimes what we think other people think is not what they think. Michael Barnes and Bob Sternberg studied the extent to which partners in an intimate relationship understood what each other wanted. What the study revealed was that people in intimate relationships don’t know very well what each other wants.

Research also reveals that same problem between colleges and businesses.

December 09, 2014

In a recent column alluding to research revealing that ages 82 to 85 are among the happiest years of a person’s life, David Brooks takes issue with its “deterministic” emphasis. He’d rather think that people get better at living through effort, skill and mastery. I can’t agree more. So I intend to surface his six issues that make life much better and apply them to Generations X and Y. Why wait until you’re an octogenarian for a happy, good life?

Start with Aristotle’s unique theory of ethics. Aristotle doesn’t see ethics as following a list of moral rules. He believes that the virtues of justice, courage, temperance and so on are complex rational, emotional and social skills. But he also emphasizes “practical ethics.” ...

December 01, 2014

Rob Cross often reminds us that it's not what we know, but whom we know. The fact is that those of us with top-drawer networks are dealing with a lot of magic. As Cross writes in an HBR Blog, there's a great deal of difference in networks.

Work since the 1970s shows that people who maintain certain kinds of networks do better: They are promoted more rapidly than their peers, make more money, are more likely to find a job if they lose their own, and are more likely to be considered high performers.

The secret, or the magic of networks has never been about size. Indeed, building mammoth Rolodexes or Facebook accounts can be harmful to your health and your performance.

The people who do best tend to have ties with those people who are not connected to each other. If you've got a network like that, you're more likely to hear about unique ideas--ideas that don't echo around in others' networks.

November 18, 2014

“Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.” --Bertrand Russell

“Why is talent getting harder to find?” Just a few months ago, one of my long term clients, a managing architect, asked that very question. He’d been through the experience over the past two years of hiring 3 new architects, only to gradually let them go because of their ineptitude. But architecture has no unique grip on the problem.

The evidence for failure for newly appointed and promoted executives in both the corporate and non-profit sectors is alarming: Harvard Business School reported ...

November 12, 2014

Over the years women and their emotions have taken a beating in the workplace. You know the accusations: women are shrill, emotional and teary. Having worked with some very tough females over the years, I've never been willing to believe all the malarkey about women and emotions. I've also noticed a lot of those emotions to be typical of men. However, whatever your experience or beliefs about women and emotions, current research indicates fairly clearly that women can often benefit from the use of anger.

Most of us are familiar with the anger antics of Rahm Emmanuel, former Illinois legislator, former Chief of Staff for Obama, and now the mayor Chicago. I kept a copy of Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article on the theatrics of the colorful, obscene Emmanuel just for the sake of some needy clients. In the article, Lizza points out that Emmanuel seems to employ his volcanic moments for effect ...

November 04, 2014

It’s become a recurring storyline for newspapers, magazines, tv and the web. Joe, for example, was a leading candidate for a good position in a hot firm. Before the final recommendation the recruiting firm checked out his use of social media. There was no badmouthing of his current firm. But a 20-something, Joe had sent one “harmless” picture of sexting while in college and the picture was still there. No recommendation for Joe! Even though he was now embarrassed by his college prank, there’s practically no disposal. And the recruiter found it.

Surveillance monitoring is nothing new. At the least, it dates back to the beginning of Henry Ford’s assembly line in the early 20th century. (I suspect the Egyptians were monitoring their slaves’ production of granite block for the pyramids.) Ford’s systems were set up ...

October 30, 2014

Humans differ significantly in their ability to make change. As a personal coach to executives for more than thirty years, it’s obvious that these differences are the status quo. Desire and motivation aren’t enough—even when it’s literally a matter of life or death.

Some, it seems, have a profound immunity to change. Often, they understand the need for change and they may even understand what the change might look like. But for some reason they seem stymied, and unable ...

October 29, 2014

The short answer to that question is rarely. Yet bosses matter a lot because nearly all employees have them. And most bosses also have bosses. There are at least 21 million bosses in the United States. Bob Sutton points out that estimates run as high as 38 million bosses. Far more often than not our success is tied to that relationship with our boss. It's invitable In organizational structures that we sometimes wonder whether the information coming from our boss is really the truth.

Bosses can be deceptive for any number of reasons: they lack permission to share information, they don't think we need the information, they don't understand our need for information, or they're defensive.

As a result, most of us prefer face-to-face meetings when there's a lot at stake. We like to think we can gauge the truthfulness or sincerity of our boss's words by the look in her eye and the tone of her voice.

So, how good are you, really, at ascertaining when your boss is telling the truth?Paul Ekman, the well-known expert at non-verbal assessment and lie-detection, has found ...